Forgetting to take tail bandages off dire consequences!

How awful, but don't forget this is how we amputate lambs tails. Ok, not with a bandage but with a rubber ring. If the blood can't flow properly then things will fall off, to put it bluntly!

Also horses can have their tails amputated, don't forget docking horses was common practice not so long ago!
 
Yes, I knew one with a little stump of a tail. Her tail came away with the bandage at a show apparently after being done up too tight and left on for too long.
 
I was about a kid who put tail bandages too tight onto a heap of polo ponies coming over in a lorry on some 12 hour journey. Apparently, even in those 12 hours its caused huge damage to their tails! I think he'd wetted the bandages or something as well so I guess they shrunk a bit too.
 
One of our hunt horses suffered as a result of a STUPID EX-hunt groom who put a tail bandage on too tight for just a few hours. She came home a few days later (we didn't know what had happened) and the minute she stepped off the ramp I said to my husband (who'd collected her) - "What's that FOUL smell!" I followed the smell to her tail and there was a necrotic ulcer under her tail - red, raw and oozing puss!! I treated it - but by the next day more ulcers had appeared - and they were literally in rings around her tail. The vet had to clip the tail right off leaving only the stump - and the ulcers had to be washed and dressed 3 times a day for WEEKS! Bless the poor girl, it was painful but she never lifted a leg!

Bloody stupid groom tried to claim that it was urine scald!!!!!!

But it is the being too tight - rather than the length of time the bandage is on - that does the damage. If the bandage is tight enough, it can result in nasty necrotic areas if it was only on for 20 minutes!!
 
Local lady had a horse who injured it's tail somehow, can't remember exactly how and local vet (who is very good and treats our horses) had put a bandage on the tail, with the order she should remove it after 3 hours. (I believe it was something to do with soaking the bandage in some kind of antiseptic something or other - don't know the details).
Anyway, lady forgot to take the bandage off and 2 days later she called up the vet telling him she was going to sue because of the state said horses tail was in.
Needless to say she had no leg to stand on as she had received instructions, in writing, telling her she must remove the bandage.
Said horse has since had it's tail amputated.
Not nice at all
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I bought a mare years ago that had received severe damage due to a tail bandage being left on overnight, too tight and wet, she narrowly missed on having to be docked.

I look back to the good old days where kids were taught stable management at the same time as being taught to ride, good old pony club days
 
Considering a torniquet (sp) can only be left on tight for 20 mins or damage would occur...... then its probably safe to assume that a badly applied overly tight tail bandage could have the same effect in a relatively short time also!!!

Scary...... but I never use them, far too lazy to wind them back up again
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I too have seen a pony like this with no tail except a few tufts and for exactly the same reason - tail bandage left on for too long.

I have to hold my hand up and confess that I have left a tail bandage on for two days last summer. My pony was turned out after a show in a fly sheet and I gave her the following day off so just checked her over and didn't remove the rug. It wasn't until the following day that I removed the rug and realised what I'd done. I was very very lucky. The bandage had not been on tightly and although she had several nasty sores and some of her tail 'hair' fell out near the top after a year's regrowth you would never know it had happened.

I have never ever repeated this mistake, nor will I. I am totally neurotic about it now because I felt utterly dreadful about it.
 
I knew a jumper with no tail bone at all but he came that way. His name was "The Manx Cat".
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I can believe the stories the way I've seen some people wrap with elastic tail bandages. The tail doesn't have great circulation to begin with, relative to legs say so I can see it might be possible to cut it off to the point where the skin dies. Yech.
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The scariest tail bandage story I've witnessed first hand was a friend of mine who shipped her horse home from a show in a one of those "skin tone" tensor bandages (tail wrap of choice back in the day) that had got damp during the day. She put it on pretty tight to begin with and then it shrunk as it dried, I guess. Halfway home the horse started to throw himself around in the trailer - we stopped but couldn't see anything wrong or make him stop it. We were close to home so kept going slowly and our coach had us unload in the sand ring because the horse was just going mental. He flew off the ramp in a panic, kicking like a fiend and literally threw himself down and started rolling when his feet hit the sand. The owner's mother took off to phone the vet for what was clearly a case of colic. My coach looked at the horse for a few seconds then stepped forward in a relatively calm moment and yanked at the bandage. He really had to pull to get it off but the second he did the horse stopped thrashing about, got up and shook himself with a "Well finally! What is WRONG with you people???" look.

It was almost funny in the end but pretty scary at the time. I've hardly bandaged a tail since and when I do a laid or braided tail I'm VERY careful.
 
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a long time ago i got back from a show and forgot to take her tail bandage off, went up in the morning to find pony bucking in her stable, her tail had gone completely numb i felt so bad.

I never knew the tail could just fall off...
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horrible
 
i know of a local horse with a short tail and lack of hair due to a tail bandage being left on too long and too tight. was left on overnight end result is horse lost tip of tail and very little hair on the tail. looks odd to say least. competes a lot SJ in the area though and although cosmetically not pleasing horse is otherwise fine. person who did bandage certainly learnt their lesson, shame they had to though...
 
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